I feel that Transformers were something that were a part of my childhood, but in a very distant manner. I only had a few of the toys and the ones I had I really liked, but I never really got into it.

With the Universe line I feel like I'm getting back a part of that fond memory of my childhood, and Ultra-class Onslaught is definitely one of those toys I would have loved as a kid.

The alt mode is a large chunky swat-team truck. The turret on top moves, along with the giant claws at the front which can move flush along the vehicle or set low down to the ground to cause some destruction. The large SWAT shield on the turret can be removed easily just by pulling it off. Underneath is a nicely detailed top with a siren, several slots for lights, and a little plastic light as well.

The little orange button activates the lights and sounds of the vehicle. A hinge on the shield allows the button to be pressed with or without the shield. There are two different sounds. One is the sound of the guns going off, and the other is the siren. While the gun sound effects will play so long as you hold down the button, the siren only goes off once no matter what. Later molds of this toy have fixed this problem, but I personally find it rather charming and amusing to have it only go off once.

Another sound effect is activated when you roll the alt mode. The sounds of the SWAT tank moving will continue so long as you continue to roll it around. It's a fun sound and definitely entertaining enough.

Onslaught's transformation is simple but incredibly satisfying. As you unfold the legs from underneath, the knees ratchet loudly and wonderfully. As you pull the arms out underneath the hood and pull the chest down to click it in place, Onslaught's mighty appearance bestows you.

The arms ratchet and have not only an elbow joint, but a wrist and bicep swivel as well!

There's some slight over spray on my left arm, but it's just a bit of QC problems. Nothing too major.

The left arm can also hold the shield from the alt mode by pulling out a tab and slotting it into the hole where the siren slots on the shield are located.The overall effect is very solid. It can also be stored onto his back as well by resting on the previous turret position.

Onslaught's other arm features a small gun. By pressing the little black button it flips out. Although a little puny, Onslaught doesn't seem to really need them since I imagine him going around just punching everything in his path anyways.

His leg articulation is pretty good as well. His knees feature incredibly heavy ratchets that are just a joy to hear.His legs feature the same universal joints that are on most Transformers his size. There's no sort of ankle or foot articulation, but Onslaught's footprint is so large that he's stable enough that he doesn't really need it.

All of the sound effects for Onslaught still turn on while in his robot mode. In addition to lighting up the turret, Onslaught's visor will light up red.

Onslaught is sort of lacking in the weapons area. All he has is the small gun on his arm along with the two cannons on his back. Unfortunately in order to use those he sort of has to bend over and aim. At the same time however I can sort of see Onslaught doing that as well.

Everything about this Transformer is large, chunky, and loads of fun. He's exactly what I think of when a large powerful Decepticon comes to mind.

Comments

Considering the details and weapons on other Transformers, I was kinda disappointed in him. I was really hoping those cannons would do something else, for instance, I'm a big fan of over-the-shoulder cannons (like on the recent Brawl figure). If they couldn't do that, then it would have at least been cool to remove the cannons, take them apart, and use them as handguns.

Overall, though, he is really articulated and looks fantastic. He just falls under that mediocre area that the second run of Universe figures seemed to suffer from. The first run figures had absolute greats like Optimus (haven't bought another Optimus since) and Megatron, who turned into a gun for the first time since his original figure. The second run had this, and the likes of Iron Hide, who was a horrible jumbled mess. Dinobot was also a super letdown, and I was hoping he would negate my desire for the original figure, but he was so stiff and boring even compared to pics of the original! I dunno where all the design and work went in the second run of Universe figures, but it was nowhere near as awesome as the stuff in the first run.

Figures you guys wouldn't care for it, as my first thought on seeing it was that it was one of the few Transformers that looked cool to me. lol

"You can't sell it until you get it from him, but you gotta sell it to pay him to get it to sell it".
---Jerilock, talking about me trying to raise the money I need to pay for the toys I already bought....

This indeed is a cool TF, but I think the Universe 2.0 colors don't do him justice like Henkei does, where he really looks like G1 Onslaught after tuning. Too bad Henkei is like 2-3 times more expensive.

I like this guy a lot too. He reminds me a lot of one of my other top favorite "modern" transformers, Tankor from Beast Machines (I'm not a huge transfan, so I needed to do some searching to remember his name). Tankor also has a monoeye. I think these guys will get along well.

By the way, I think it's my monitor, but to me it looked like he didn't have any leg articulation save for his knees. Either that or just really short legs. I was a little relieved to see the kneeling picture.

Universe Onslaught blows the hell out of BM Tankor like crumbs on the table.

Tankor looks cool in the cgi cartoon because he was big, he was a white-blue destroid-like Vehicon TF, & he's got a red mono-eye which you're right, b/c it wooshes left and right like a Cylon Centurion.

Tankor's cool in the show, but as a toy he's super-crap. Not fun to play with like Onslaught most of the time. The only fun you could get out it is the firing missle launch from his cannon turret.

You think they get along well? Think again. Tankor is a crappy toy in voyager and deluxe versions. Onslaught can only grant admission if Tankor were an Ultra.

I guess we'll just have to disagree on this then. To me Tankor as a toy is very aesthetically pleasing (I didn't watch the show). He's chunky, but he has the poseability to do anything you need him to. I'll take light-piping over anything else any day of the week. Hated the mechanism on the rotating turret though. (I think I lost the missile pretty quickly too)

I got no problem with that b/c I've learned an opinion is by definition means 'bias'. I can't strive of what I can't own which is a fact.

I didn't like Voyager-sized Tankor much because the abs plastic materials were weak & the leg ball joints were loose & the arms and claws were frustrating to pose.

I agree that the light piping is pleasing, but it's frustrating to play with as a toy.

I do admit that the Basic-Sized Tankor is better than the 1st version not b/c it's cartoon-accurate, b/c it's stable, & it shoots a missile, but no light piping gimmick. My beef w/ that toy is that it's small & it's less articulate & that fails as a big tank-bot. & when they both versions fail, they're trash & Onslaught scraps off the floor & dumps them in the scrap heap.

I lost my missiles too, but I don't miss them. I just miss Deluxe Jetstorm.

I would say he's lacking in the weapons department, but at the same time the lack of weapons is refreshing. the simplicity of all of it reminds me of older transformers and it's why he's one of my favorites.

Also I figured I'd mention this. I found this guy in the Wal-Mart clearance aisles for $11! How can you say no to that?

I like the Classics/Universe series, I don't agree that *all* of the 1st series were winners, but this one definitely is. The head sculpt alone is worth the low price of owning.

And I'm really into the fact that this Onslaught lacks weapons. As a kid I hated the G1 toy... If you lost the guns, that figure isn't that cool. 2 clean modes, not a lot of kibble floating around, this one is pretty nice. Especially on clearance, now.

Transformers Universe was specifically their G1 "homage" line largely aimed at collectors, whereas Animated and ROTF were supposed to be the main lines last year. I don't see a big problem with that. We've gotten some really neat toys out of that line and the Classics line that came before it.

I do agree with you, though, that main line toys shouldn't be just homages. For example, in Animated they started off by giving us a mix of homage and original characters. However, toward the end of the series, every new character was an homage character (Rodimus, Blackout, Cyclonus, Spittor). It just felt lazy.